Chapter 12

Chemical Nanosensors for Monitoring Environmental Pollution

Sadanand Pandey*, 1 and Shivani B Mishra2

1Materials Research Centre, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India

2Department of Applied Chemistry, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

*Corresponding author: sadanand.au@gmail.com

Abstract

Due to the enhancement in industrial development and population, the natural atmospheric environment has become polluted and is rapidly deteriorating. Presently, environmental monitoring is needed in order to protect the public and the environment from toxic contaminants and pathogens that can be released into a variety of media including air, soil, and water. Thus, the need for monitoring and proper control of such pollutants is essential to prevent environmental disasters. Nanomaterials-based chemical sensors are the solution for the prevention of these environmental disasters. This chapter will provide a brief review on current research status of chemical sensors based on various new types of nanostructured materials such as nanoparticles (NPs) nanotubes (NTs), nanorods (NRs), nanobelts (NBs), and nanowires (NWs). In this chapter, the focus for the application of chemical nanosensor will be placed on gas sensors that have been developed for environmental monitoring, along with their sensing principles. These nanomaterials-based chemical sensor devices have a number of salient characteristics, including high sensitivity, excellent selectivity, fast response ...

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